“We make a living by what we get. We make a life by what we give.” — Sir Winston Chruchill
I had known about Bill Clinton’s book Giving since it’s 2007 release, and had placed it on my “get around to it” reading list. This saving the world endeavor you and I are embarking on will require some honesty, I think you’ll agree. So let me be honest and tell you that my list of “get around to it” books is ever growing. My appetite for the concept of a book is more voracious than my actual reading habits, so progress on the list is slow — especially when coupled with my penchant for picking up the book that interests me most strongly at the moment. President Clinton’s autobiography, My Life, has been sitting on my bookshelf unread for five years, so you can see the prospects for Giving were looking grim.
I’ve come to learn that there is no such thing as a coincidence — at least not by the popular definition of it being an accident — but my life has been riddled by synchronicity and it is a truth I embrace. One day while making a regular jaunt from our downtown Orlando home to the Canaveral Seashore, my other half and I stopped by a local bookstore for reading materials. I really wasn’t planning on buying anything, but he had several items in his hands in no time, so I felt it was only fair that I pick out at least one thing. Then there it was, in the bargain section for less than five bucks: Giving: How Each of Us Can Change the World. I bought it, even though it was in large print. (I would soon find with a combination of wonder and consternation that the large print is easier on my eyes.)
I’ll spare you flowery details of the rest of our adventure that day, since it involves a nude beach and we’re only just getting to know one another. Suffice to say Giving didn’t have to wait on the shelf next to My Life; I ate it up and continue to digest it. I treated it like a text book and underlined portions and made notes in the margins. At a recession-smothered, for all intents and purposes unemployed, wanderlusting moment in my life, I was reading Bill Clinton’s Giving at the precise time I was meant to. It inspired me and, in turn, inspired this blog.
One of the organizations the book talks about is Heifer International, headquartered next door to the Clinton Presidential Library in Little Rock, AR. American farmer Dan West founded the organization as “Heifers for Relief” in 1944 after serving as a relief worker during the Spanish Civil War; he was frustrated with having to decide how to dole out rations and recognized it as only a short term solution. The goal of his organization was to provide permanent freedom from hunger by giving families livestock and teaching them how to tend the animals, thus empowering them to provide for themselves, rather than depending on handouts. My favorite part of the program is that the recipients of the animals are required to give the first offspring to another family; it’s something West came up with and it continues to this day under the motto “Pass on the Gift.”
Heifer has lots of creative ways to give. Do you have a celebration coming up like a wedding, anniversary, or birthday? You could set up a gift registry so that people give animals to people in need, as opposed to giving you crap you’re going to try to get rid of at your next yard sale. Looking to give a gift for that hard-to-buy-for friend? How about a gift card donating seedlings in their name? I’ll leave you to explore Heifer.org on your own, I’m too excited to tell you about how we’re going to work together to help this cool cause.
By this time next year, you and I will have raised $10,000 for Heifer International as part of the Scottie Saves the World Team. My plan is to gather 10 team members, including myself, and each of us will raise $1000. If we have more than 10 team members, excellent. If you would like to join the team, but feel more comfortable with a lower goal, that is fine too. Perhaps you are cocky and would like to set a higher goal, knock yourself out. Or maybe you don’t have the time to join the team but would like to make a donation, remind me to give you a kiss next time I see you!
There might be a few of you out there pulling chunks of your hair out and yelling at your laptop: “Ten grand! He’s lost his mind! We can’t do it. We just can’t do it.” First, go easy on the caffeine, alright? Second, let me break down exactly how possible this is. Our website gets approximately 7000 hits a month, if each of those visitors gave just $1.43, we would go over our goal. Every two weeks we distribute 30,000 Watermarks, if each person picking up the paper gave only 34 cents, we would go over our goal.
An aspect of giving to Heifer International that I find particularly appealing is being able to donate in terms of the animal you are helping to purchase. For example, you can give a heifer for $500 or a share of one for $20, a llama for $250 or a share of one for $20, a trio of rabbits for $60 or a share for $10. It really helps to visualize the impact that you’re making, doesn’t it? I’ve started our team off with $20 — that’s a flock of geese, my friends! Imagine the livestock we will have helped buy by this time next year. Imagine the lives we will have changed.
Imagine.
